Embodiments of the present invention relate to rack systems and, more specifically, to distributed operating system functions for nodes in a rack.
Conventional rack systems incorporate servers in communication with one another. For example, a rack system can include twenty to forty servers. Future rack systems, however, may incorporate thousands of servers. Each server in a rack system can run virtual machines, which behave as nodes within the rack system. Thus, a server may include multiple virtual machines, which can communicate with one another by way of the server. Analogously, a rack can include multiple servers in communication with one another.
An operating system is a form of software that manages a computer's hardware and software resources, and enables the hardware and software to communicate. In a rack system including many servers, each server and each virtual machine on each server operates independently in some respects and thus has its own operating system.